Event Pop platform gets capital boost from InVent
INTOUCH Holdings, through its venture capital arm InVent, has led a Series A financing round of Event Pop Holdings Pte Ltd.
Under the brand “Event Pop”, the company is Thailand’s leading end-to-end event management platform provider.
“As a result of rapid growth of the event organising industry today, we see strong business potential in this market,” said Kim Siritaweechai, executive vice-president of portfolio management for Intouch yesterday.
“Event Pop is one of the fastest growing start-ups in this industry. With business expertise and proprietary technology, Event Pop not only brings a new level of efficiency to event organisers, but also a unique experience to event attendees.”
Kim also saw an opportunity for Event Pop to tap the growing MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market in Thailand.
The Intouch investment in Event Pop, the latest and 12th startup in which it had invested, will enable the platform to expand business and create new services in Thailand as well as its core ticketing services.
It would also be able to explore overseas expansion, said Kim. According to Intouch’s filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday, it had purchased 103,052 newly issued preferred shares from Event Pop, equivalent to around 18 per cent of the latter’s paid-up capital, on transactions value of US$1.6 million (Bt53 million).
The investment was made under Intouch’s InVent project.
The Series A financing round also saw co-investment among Thai corporate Venture Capitalists (CVC) from different industries in Event Pop, including Beacon Venture Capital, the VC fund of Kasikornbank.
Pattaraporn Bodhisuwan, co-founder and CEO of Event Pop, said that both InVent and Beacon VC are the ideal strategic partners to take the company to a new height, becoming the best platform for marketing and management of events in Thailand.
Founded two years ago, Event Pop had served roughly over 3,000 events including festivals, live shows, sports, businesses and seminars.
InVent had made investment in the promising startup since its establishment in 2012, aiming to provide funding for and promote high-potential startup in the telecom, media and technology sectors.
It now has 10 startups in its portfolio.
